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Interesting Tinder dating app maths problem. Help!

A bit of background: Tinder is an online dating mobile app where users swipe right if they like a person and swipe left if they don’t like a person. In the event that both users swipe right for eachother it results in a ‘match’ where a conversation is opened and the matches can start talking to eachother.

My question is this…

Tinder's marketing department has found that female users on average swipe right for only 14% of guys on the app while men swipe right for 46% of women. They also found that men outnumber women on Tinder, with men accounting for 60% of the user base.

Bearing all of this in mind, what percentage of men are competing for the 14% of women who swipe right?

Update: Please assume a heterosexual user base and that all users are equally active on the app (i.e. the same number of swipes per person).
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 1
I don't think you have phrased any kind of meaningful question.

On average 46% of the men on Tinder men are competing for those 14% of women. But that's assuming random swiping, which clearly isnmt going to be the case.

More data needed, or think again about what youmre trying to ask :smile:
100%. All men want somebody who will swipe them right.
Tinder is crap!
Didnt get a single match!
So i left it and havent used it since.
But i dont what on earth youre asking tbh!
A male swiping right and a female swiping right are both independent events so the probability of two people of opposite genders matching on average is 6.44%. For every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right. Not the best at statistics but I'm not even sure what you're asking, you should rephrase the question.
Thanks @RDKGames that helps.

I've added an update at the end of the original post. I hope that gives you the information you're looking for.

I guess what I'm trying to extract from the data is any deductions or conclusions you can make from this data to support the idea that a majority of men are competing for access to a minority of women on the app.- based on the fact that 46% of men swipe right, 14% of women swipe right and men represent 60% of the user base.

I do realise that there are a lot of uncontrolled variables at play here that in reality make it a lot more complex (e.g. number of swipes per person, age restriction settings, same sex matching etc) but any powerful statistic you can deduce from the data to illustrate the unbalanced dynamic between men and women would be of great help.

Can anyone add anything?
(edited 7 years ago)
Well the naive expectation would be that males swiping right on a pic have a 14% probability of a match, i.e. one match for every 7.143 right swipes. and females swiping right on a pic have a 46% probability of a match i.e. one match for every 2.174 right swipes.

There's a sort of related theorem called optimal stopping http://qz.com/671292/swipe-left-37-times-the-mathematical-formula-to-find-the-one/ but unlike the author of that article I don't really see how a workable tinder strategy emerges from it tbh since both parties need to select each other - it's not like buying a car or a house or something similar which is the type of problem the theorem was designed to deal with.
Original post by RDKGames
A male swiping right and a female swiping right are both independent events so the probability of two people of opposite genders matching on average is 6.44%. For every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right. Not the best at statistics but I'm not even sure what you're asking, you should rephrase the question.



If it is true that "for every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right" then does that mean that for every 1 female swiping right there are 2500/161=16 males swiping right?
Is it possible to workout how many more times a female is likely to get a match than a male on average?
Original post by FireFreezer77
Tinder is crap!
Didnt get a single match!
So i left it and havent used it since.
But i dont what on earth youre asking tbh!


The way you formatted that made me think it was going to be a Tinder based rap. The first two lines delivered after all. Was so disappointed. :frown:
Original post by smoothiechode
If it is true that "for every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right" then does that mean that for every 1 female swiping right there are 2500/161=16 males swiping right?


Original post by smoothiechode
Is it possible to workout how many more times a female is likely to get a match than a male on average?


Yes to first question. For the second, I think more data is needed because swiping right doesn't necessary denote a match. So more statistics is needed for matches for males and females, ie the percentage of women/men to get a match individually.
(edited 7 years ago)
I used to get a lot of matches when I wasn't 18, now I am 18 I have had NONE. I'm assuming it's because of girls want someone older than 18 ?
Original post by 99_Problems
The way you formatted that made me think it was going to be a Tinder based rap. The first two lines delivered after all. Was so disappointed. :frown:


Haha i didnt notice that
The first two lines are actuall very rap like!
But apaologies for getting your hopes up!
Original post by RDKGames
Yes to first question. For the second, I think more data is needed because swiping right doesn't necessary denote a match. So more statistics is needed for matches for males and females, ie the percentage of women/men to get a match individually.


Ok thanks.

But how on earth did you work out that for every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right (and therefore 1:16) It looks a bit off at first glance when you compare it to the data.
Original post by smoothiechode
Ok thanks.

But how on earth did you work out that for every 161 females swiping right, there are 2500 males swiping right (and therefore 1:16) It looks a bit off at first glance when you compare it to the data.


As I said, I'm not great at statistics but since the two events of males swiping right and females swiping right are independent, just multiply 0.14 by 0.46 to get a probability of BOTH genders swiping right on average. Keep in mind that this is ONLY for swiping right, not necessarily getting matches. I think I made a mistake in my previous post when I said that this probability is for them matching. However, the probability is also a ratio of women to men with their "right swipe" action. This probability can be expressed as a rational fraction 161/2500 which means for EVERY MALE swiping right there are 0.0644 females swiping right; NOT matching. Take the reciprocal of this fraction and you get the amount of males PER ONE FEMALE, thus 15.5... or 16. This is where the data on matching needs to come in in order to deduce how many matches each gender gets per one of opposite gender.

Anyone can feel free to correct me if they wish, but this is how it's working in my head... and I got a D in my A-Level stats module [retook it this year with high confidence of an A] so y'know xD
(edited 7 years ago)

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